Eli5: How come fire flames go upwards and why do the flames always “dance” around?
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Fire is way lighter than the air around it, so it floats up like a balloon. It keeps floating up even when it cools down enough to be invisible, like how lava turns into dark rocks when it cools down. Fire is more like a stream that turns invisible the higher it goes than a thing that just sits there on wood or whatever. That’s why you feel heat if you wave you hand over a fire without touching it.
Other air rushes into the place the fire left, like how after you get out of a pool there isn’t a hole in the water after you get out. Air works like water and fills in the hole from the fire as it floats up. Fire dances around because of the wind of the air rushing down around it: it flutters like a flag in the wind.
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